Bethesda will use the Creation Engine for The Elder Scrolls 6 and Starfield

Is the Creation Engine an asset of a liability?

Bethesda will use the Creation Engine for The Elder Scrolls 6 and Starfield

Since the release of Fallout 76, Bethesda's Creation Engine has been receiving a lot of flack from consumers and modders alike, many of which are dissatisfied with the engine limitations, especially on PC, or are disappointed by the game's graphics.

In an interview with GameStar, Bethesda's Todd Howard has confirmed that both Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI will use the Creation Engine, albeit an updated version of the engine which will ship with new features and hardware optimisations. Below is Todd Howard's statement in full.

For Fallout 76 we have changed a lot. The game uses a new renderer, a new lighting system and a new system for the landscape generation. For Starfield even more of it changes. And for The Elder Scrolls 6, out there on the horizon even more. We like our editor. It allows us to create worlds really fast and the modders know it really well. There are some elementary ways we create our games and that will continue because that lets us be efficient and we think it works best.

The Creation Engine is limited by a lot of factors, especially on PC, presenting players with framerate limits, a lack of FOV adjustments and other factors that Bethesda has, for the most part, have ignored until now. At this point, the Creation Engine is showing its age, but in the eyes of Bethesda, this is an asset, as modders will be experienced with their creation tools and their design teams can quickly develop new game worlds using it.

There is always the possibility that Bethesda Softworks can tap the expertise of id Software, the creators of the id Tech 6 engine that powers DOOM 2016 and Wolfenstein The New Colossus, one of the most technically impressive game engines within the industry. Both companies are subsidiaries of ZeniMax Media, making the matchup more than just a possibility. The Creation Engine needs some serious work, and id Software might just have the talent and experience that Bethesda Softworks needs to give the engine the overhaul that fans deserve.

"We know it well and it let's us make stuff quick. That makes us a lot of money."

Basically what they are saying. Crappy excuse to put blame on consumers. " Our players like it and the modding capability we offer, so why bother changing?"

Well moron, because the only reason you finally acknowledged the limitations of the engine, is because the players and modders said they don't like it! Ironic.

That' exactly what I thought.
Reading that statement one translation came to mind: "We're too lazy to build a new engine because we know you all will sitll buy it anyway, and modders will fix what we can't be bothered to fix ourselves!"Quote

Worth noting that statement was made way back in June before all this recent F76 PC controversy. The whole "The engine is outdated thing" only reigns true because they haven't put enough work in to maintain it. Pretty much every game engine out there today will have code in dating back several decades(Just like every OS and almost any other complex piece of software), the age of its initial code base really isn't the issue. Scrapping a whole system and starting afresh would likely take 5+ years to get to anywhere near something usable not including game development time given their rate of engine developments usually(Not like they created the Creation Engine from scratch in the first place). Complex systems are rarely ever "Too broke to fix", and while updating & maintaining them can seem daunting, & the alternatives of starting afresh liberating, in reality it often just results in a lot of work done twice and not necessarily better.

While Fallout 4 could have done a lot better, on the x86 side of things in particular there was a fair bit of reworking under the hood to get it ready for the consoles. Given TESVI is set for a time when we could very well have RTRT and the likes on consoles, I'd be very surprised if the rendering portion of the engine didn't get a large overhaul for DX12 and it's sea of complementary features only just coming to fruition.Quote

I feel the overall basics of the engine need a massive overhaul. The basic structure has not changed since Morrowind. I spent a lot of time using that construction set and even as far as Skyrim and FO4 it felt like the same engine with modified renderers. It personally feels like since TES3 they have added mounting (Horses and power armour), a new combat system in oblivion and then extended it for kill moves,VATS ect, Physics into oblivion and a lot of animation and graphical increases. other than that it feels the same as it did nearly 20 years ago, clunky and buggy and still running on cell generation. It was a very diverse engine back in 2002 but it feels like its really struggling to keep up with newer engines and really feel bad for the devs if they are going to affectively make raytracing work with this engine...Quote

Register for the OC3D Newsletter

Subscribing to the OC3D newsletter will keep you up-to-date
on the latest technology reviews, competitions and goings-on at Overclock3D.
We won't share your email address with ANYONE, and we will only email you with updates on site news, reviews, and competitions and you can unsubscribe easily at any time.

Simply enter your name and email address into the box below and be sure to click on the links in the
confirmation emails that will arrive in your e-mail shortly after to complete the registration.